The Dragonslayer
by CliosLibrarian
Summary: AU- dragonslayer/ouat oneshot David asks an old friend to keep his daughter safe.


**I just can't leave these two idiots alone...I am convinced that even without a curse, they would have ended up in this little dance of theirs, neither wanting to bend first. Enjoy this bit of fluff**. **I do not own these characters, nor the characters from Dragonslayer, much to my dismay**.

_Deep in the bowels of the earth she waited. One more night and her appetite for human flesh would be sated for another year. It was an old bargain, and as cold-hearted as she was, she still honored her agreements. A maiden each year at dusk on midsummer's eve, and she would restrict her diet to sheep and cows, and she would keep her fire and her rage off the farmlands and towns of the Kingdom she dwelled in. Perhaps she would be merciful this time, and cook her food before she ate it, or perhaps she would watch her run in fear and let her die screaming. These are the solitary musings of a dragon, she thought as she felt a shift underneath her, the pile of gold coins she lay upon clinking and jangling in the dark._

"Please tell me that you did not actually summon me here...Captain Hook, scourge of the seas, to ask me to retrieve your errant princess? I'm not a bloody nursemaid."  
"Keep your voice down, for gods sake...it's almost one in the morning. I don't want to wake the whole castle."  
"Haha...how have the mighty fallen! The King sneaking about in the gardens, conspiring with a pirate..."  
"Killian! Ugh...why do you have to make everything so difficult!?"  
"It's part of my charm."

David sat down heavily on the low stone wall that ringed the garden then and propped his head in his hands. "This conversation is giving me a headache."  
"Look David..whatever notion the brat, pardon me...the princess has in her head...you just say no! Are you the King or not!?" He nearly growled, unable to keep the frustration out of his voice.

He was very fond of the aging King and the Queen, but it was widely known that the Charmings were overindulgent with their children. John and Michael, both now 16, ran practically wild, preferring to be with their uncles in the mines to focusing on their lessons. The Princess was more likely to be found wielding a sword to protect the border-towns from roaming harpies than brandishing a needle and thread as most other girls of her station were expected to do. That and healing the sick everywhere that she went, without regard for her own safety, with those magical abilities of hers. And generally being a contrary nuisance.

She was a spitfire, like her mother, and a royal pain in his ass. He wondered idly if her parents had any idea of some of the scrapes she had gotten into in the last year. Word had traveled to him of a particularly close call to do with a troll that was terrorizing a small lake-bound village just two weeks prior. It was part of the reason he returned to the kingdom sooner than he had originally planned. Worrying about the princess was becoming a habit, one that he didn't want to look too closely at.

"Hook, she's almost 23 years old, and you know for a fact that she's every bit as strong willed and stubborn as her mother. I can't just tell her no. She isn't a child anymore."  
"That much we agree on..." Hook mumbled to himself.  
"What? Anyway...she is getting more and more restless. Now that her brothers are getting older she is getting steadily more independent. I don't know where she is half of the time...accepting quests, using the pretense of visiting friends and family to travel to neighboring kingdoms. It's like she is looking for trouble!"

"You could always lock her in her room."  
"You think I haven't tried? She has the guards scared of her, her uncles wrapped around her little finger, and her brothers...well, they are getting to be just as bad as her."

Killian smiled fondly then, thinking offhandedly that the princes were overdue for another lesson in sword fighting. He thanked the gods above that they seemed to have no supernatural abilities like their older sister because they were already quite the handful without them. They were good at scrapping, thanks mostly to Emma, and while the Prince was a fair hand at a sword, he lacked the advantage of daily practice that a pirate Captain enjoyed.

"Back to the point, majesty...why the hasty summons...I had barely docked tonight when the guards came for me. She could only have left a few hours ago..."  
"Yes, she must have left right after dinner...Snow found a note on her pillow. She took my shield and my sword with her to "visit Auntie Red", whose home is uncomfortably close to the border of the Urlands. And tomorrow night is midsummer..."

Killian's eyes widened in sudden and startled understanding. "Oh gods...Maleficent!"  
"Exactly!" David exclaimed, relieved that his friend now understood the gravity of the situation. "I'll have my crew ready the ship and be gone within the hour." Hook said gravely, bowing curtly and taking his leave.

David sat in the garden for a few moments more, composing himself before returning to his wife. His sense of relief was palpable. He was coming to terms with the fact that he was not the young man he once was, and as badly as he had wanted to jump on his own horse and go after her himself, he trusted his friend to make it in time and to keep her safe.

Everyone knew of Captain Hook's sad tale. His love, murdered by her husband when he had discovered them together. His left hand taken in recompense for the theft. He had searched far and wide for his crocodile, and with the help of the fairies had discovered a way to kill him without becoming the Dark One in his place.

They had shared many adventures together since he first encountered the dashing young Captain 8 years prior. He had come to court to pay his respects and to thank them for their tolerance of his presence within their borders, as he had lingered long at port to repair his ship, damaged by a Kraken in a distant sea.

He had intended to leave quietly, not wishing to abuse their hospitality further. But, he had quickly returned to port after discovering a young girl stowed away aboard the Jolly Roger. After some enquiries in town, he had discovered that she was none other than the 15 year old princess of his host kingdom and he hastened to return her to the castle. Much to his amusement, she had tried to duel him for the right to join his crew. Emma was infuriated to have lost, and tried to run for it. He had been forced to bind her hands and throw her over his shoulder to bring her up from the ship. She practically sneered at him as he dropped her in front of her parents. "What sort of pirate are you anyway?" The Charmings were of course instantly enamored of him, to his great shock.

But, the more he learned about them, the less he was surprised that the King and Queen overlooked his occupation and offered him their friendship and protection. Snow White had been a rebel princess, hiding out in the forest for years from the Evil Queen before defeating her and David had been a shepherd, roped into filling the shoes of his slain brother, successfully thwarting the will of the tyrannical King George. They understood the complexity that life offered, the cruelty of the masks that people were forced to wear. He soon became a regular visitor to the kingdom, part of their patchwork family of dwarves, fairies, and the occasional werewolf. The boys loved him, and Emma loved arguing with him. David smiled at the thought.

Emma...his headstrong, beautiful, brash girl. Woman, really. She was their true love baby, and they had spoiled her terribly. She was never one for ceremony, and dresses, and life at court. She left that to her parents while she took the boys into her charge, bossing them around from the time they were out of swaddling clothes. She followed the letter if not the spirit of her royal duties, only showing her face in court for very special occasions and holidays. The people were extremely fond of their lovely and magical princess, who was known as much for her healing powers as her pure, kind heart. David had never been concerned about her safety within the borders of his own kingdom, but recently she was no longer content to stay close to home.

He grimaced. There could be no mistaking his daughter's intentions. Had she not just last night given him a haughty lecture about the barbaric lottery in the Urlands and how he should use his influence to persuade King Casiodorus to halt it? He slapped his own head in frustration. He should have known that it was not just idle dinner conversation.

When Snow showed him the note as they retired for the evening, his heart had sunk, and the Queen wasted no time calling the guards into their chambers to go roust Hook from his ship. She didn't care that he had just returned from abroad. Time was of the essence and it was by divine providence that Hook had chosen midsummer to pay a visit to their kingdom. "You tell him to bring our girl back to me!" She had hissed at Charming as she pushed him out the door to the garden.

_A little while later..._

Killian Jones was normally a patient man, but he had practically leaped from his ship as they made port, sending the crew to run interference with King Casiodorus's men. He would rather they thought that Captain Hook and his crew of pirates were after the dragon's treasure than to risk the political fallout that would occur should they discover that the princess of a neighboring kingdom took issue with the King's method of diplomacy. There would be war.

He got to the cave about two seconds too late. "You are bloody brilliant!" He exclaimed before he could stop himself, fear and anger on hold. He had entered the cave just in time to see Emma piercing the heart of the dragon through with her father's sword. Maleficent's head had dropped to the ground a moment later, severed by Hook's own cutlass, just in case. He had embraced her then, pulling back only to check her for injuries. Her golden curls were pulled back at the nape of her neck, her green eyes blazing. She looked so fierce, so radiant in her chain mail and breeches, so happy to see him, that it took his breath away and made his chest feel tight. It told him everything he needed to know.

For a brief moment Emma's heart had soared, but then it suddenly occurred to her that he could only have known she was there if her parents had sent him. Typical, she thought, now bristling at his interference. Stupid, handsome, infuriating pirate!

She had barely had time to ask what the hell he was doing there, telling him that she had things well in hand, when he had noticed a particularly nasty wound that the dragon's claws had inflicted across her shoulder - right before she had bit down on the bitch and stabbed her through her heart. He had gone from elated to furious in a matter of seconds and had launched into a full blown lecture about worrying her parents into an early grave, and being an ungrateful, spoiled brat of a princess. She had stalked out of the cave then and had been steadily ignoring him since. She had silently mounted her horse, waiting for him to catch up and lead her to the ship that had been sent to carry her home.

During the journey back to her kingdom, they hadn't spoken a word to each other, each too proud to make the first entreaty. Both full of emotions that confused and frightened them. It wasn't until she came before her parents, that she was able to express what she was feeling, though she still couldn't do so directly.

"Emma, this has to stop! We were all sick with worry!" David exclaimed, frustrated at her lack of remorse.  
"You don't understand! None of you understand. When the boys were born, it was like a great weight had been lifted. You have your heirs now, which means I am not obligated to marry to carry on the throne, but I know that if I sit around here too long I will wake up one day standing in the temple, hand-fasted to a lazy, fat prince whose idea of adventure is riding his horse out to the boundaries of his land everyday! That's not good enough for me. And what is the point of having this power if I don't use it. Whatever my destiny is I won't find it here, going slowly insane as you hoard me away like the dragon did her gold. Don't you see...this castle is a prison to me, a glittering cage!"

She hesitated then, at the looks of pain on the faces of her parents.  
"I don't say these things to hurt you..." and she spared Hook a glance as well. He looked so disappointed in her, it brought a flash of tears to her eyes.

David said quietly, "Do you really think that we would force you to do something you didn't want to do?" Snow looked at her daughter pleadingly, trying to keep her from escalating the conversation.  
"No...father, I don't...but..." But David had already walked past her and out of the room, with a sad Snow following behind him. She stopped only to place her hand on her daughter's arm, squeezing for a moment, as though to make sure she was really there.

When Emma turned to Killian, he rounded on her, "I hope you are happy now princess...you have successfully broken your father's heart!"

"Stop calling me that! You do it just to annoy me."  
"Do what?"  
"Call me princess..."  
"Well, that's what you are!"  
"But I've asked you time and again to call me Emma!"  
"No."  
"Why? Why do you insist on calling me Princess?!" Her eyes alight with anger, frustrated by her own need to understand him, her voice breaking under the burden of all the things she could not say.  
"Because I bloody well need a reminder, alright?!"

Her eyes snapped to his and her mouth gaped open at his almost desperate response. He should have walked away from this conversation before it had gotten to this point. But he had been so scared for her. He had spent the journey to the Urlands contemplating what he would be losing if he had gotten to that cave and found her burned to a cinder. Frustrated and raw as he was, for a moment his mask slipped. He was laid bare before her. She saw the fear there and the love...for her. All this time, she had thought her feelings for him were unrequited. But there it was, plain as day in his stormy eyes, blue like the sea, and all she could say was, "Oh..."

He smiled sardonically, and said, "Indeed." Sighing, he reached out for her then, unable to stop himself, and cupped her face in his hand gently, shaking his head and closing his eyes as if to stave off the inevitable rejection. But once again, he underestimated her.

She closed the gap between them and pressed her lips against his as she placed her left hand on top of his tenderly. He was shocked completely still, unable to move for a moment until she reached out with her right hand and brought his Hook around her waist. He tightened his arm around her and deepened the kiss, pulling her flush to his body, years of longing infused in the touch of his lips against hers, unbound. All at once, a wave of magic pulsed between them like a breeze, rushing forth to the edges of the room and beyond until its blast was felt by every man, woman, and child in the kingdom.

He drew back from her, incredulous, and she smiled up at him, shaking her head. "Killian Jones...you are a prize idiot", she whispered fondly...just as her mother, father, and brothers burst into the room. If they were shocked to see the princess in the arms of the pirate, they didn't show it. In fact, they all seemed to be smiling, surprising both Killian and Emma. And just on cue, Queen Snow laughed out loud and said, "Well...it's about bloody time!"


End file.
